Exercise - Create a new app to work with Azure storage

  • 5 minutes

Recall that we're working on a photo-sharing application that uses Azure Storage to manage pictures and other bits of data we store on behalf of our users.

To simplify our scenario so that we can focus on the Storage APIs, we'll create a new .NET Core Console application. We'll also assume it always has network connectivity. However, you should always harden your app to ensure network failures won't affect the user experience or result in a failure of the application itself.

Create a .NET Core application

.NET Core is a cross-platform version of .NET that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. You can install the tools locally or use Cloud Shell on the right side of the window to execute the following steps.

  1. Create a new .NET Core Console application with the name "PhotoSharingApp". Add the -o or --output flag to create the app in a specific folder.

    dotnet new console --name PhotoSharingApp

  2. Change into the application directory.

    cd PhotoSharingApp

  3. Run the app to make sure it builds and executes correctly.

    dotnet run

    The output "Hello World!" should display in the console.

To simplify our scenario so that we can focus on the Storage APIs, we'll create a new Node.js application that can run from the console. We'll also assume it always has network connectivity. However, you should always harden your app to ensure network failures won't affect the user experience, or result in a failure of the application itself.

Create a Node.js application

Node.js is a popular framework for running JavaScript apps. It's most commonly used for web apps, but you can use it to run logic from the command line as well. If you have the tools installed locally, you can run the following steps from a command line. Alternatively, you can use Cloud Shell on the right side of the window to execute the following steps.

  1. In the Cloud Shell on the right, create a new folder named "PhotoSharingApp".

    mkdir PhotoSharingApp

  2. Change into the new folder, and use npm to initialize a new Node.js app. This will create a package.json file containing metadata that describes the app.

    cd PhotoSharingApp
npm init -y

  3. Create a new source file, index.js, which is where our code will go.

    touch index.js

  4. Open the index.js file with an editor. If you're using Cloud Shell, enter code . to open an editor.

  5. Paste the following program into the index.js file. Press Ctrl+V or right-click to paste.

    #!/usr/bin/env node

function main() {
    console.log('Hello, World!');
}

main();

  6. Press Ctrl+S to save the file. Alternatively, in the Cloud Shell integrated editor title bar, select the ellipsis, and then select Save from the context menu.

  7. Run the app to make sure it executes correctly.

    node index.js

    The output "Hello World!" should display in the console.